This essay was on what kind of person I thought the Hostess in the story was.

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Jonathan Davila
Professor Dougherty
ENGL 1C
12 September 2012
Unknown Knowing
In everyday life, we often make inferences such a judging someone we
have not talked to or simply thinking we have knowledge of a certain subject
which we are unsure about. Inferences occur daily whether it is reading an
article on someone or judging someone we just met based on appearances. In
the short story “Hostess,” by Donald Mangum, the reader can make inferences
about the hostess based on how she speaks and acts throughout the story. The
reader is able to understand what the hostess is like and how she thinks based on
how this story was written. While reading this short story it can be
acknowledged that she is a caring and thoughtful woman.
Throughout the story we see many caring examples of how the hostess
tries helping out the husband when he is drinking at the beginning of the story.
The hostess in the story states that, “Now there was a whole line of beer drinkers
doing the rain dance out in the hall… I was the hostess, and I had to do
something” (Magnum 46). This quote illustrates that she cares about the people
in this trailer because she decides to put a bowl on the floor so the people would
not dirty the carpet and so they would not make such a big mess. In the

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beginning the hostess tries her best to help out the husband, while any other
person would have just left him there and make him clean up his own mess after
all the chaos going on. We can infer that the hostess is caring based on how she
acts around this family and how she shows her care for the husband and wife.
Later on in the story we see an example of how the hostess is a
thoughtful woman because as the wife is talking on the phone with someone
whose family member has passed away. The hostess tells her, “Sweetheart, you
listen to me,” I said, trying to close the window for more quiet” (Mangum 47).
This shows that the hostess is a thoughtful woman because she took some time
to try calming the women down and even closed the window so that she would
have more privacy because of her loss. With this saying that the hostess made I
was able to infer that she does not only care about herself, but is thoughtful
when helping out others with problems.
In the end I was able to make the decision that my inferences of the
hostess were correct based on evidence she states throughout the story and how
she shows her compassion towards the family. Through her actions and through
her way of speaking, I was able to determine that the hostess was definitely
thoughtful and caring enough to not only care about herself, but for the well
being of others. The lesson that we can learn from this story is that all people
deserve a chance to speak up, because if we do not allow them to we will begin
to make inferences about what type of person they may be without getting to
know them. By the time this story ended I was able to infer that the hostess was

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a caring and thoughtful person and there is nothing that would change my mind
about that.